OUR IMPACT

SEE HOW MANY LIVES WE'VE CHANGED

We've secured over 1,500 homes and jobs for people!

We are working towards change that results in long term stability, which is why we only count Team Members who are “permanently” employed and housed. We only count job placements after 90 days and housing when a Team Member’s name is on a lease.

We do not consider temporary employment and shelter as permanent solutions, so you will not see these placements in our impact numbers below.

EMPLOYED: 755

HOUSED: 821

Employment

755 Team Members employed for 90 days or more

We are averaging 8 employment placements per month

84.9% of graduates keep their job for 90 days or more (six times the national best practice average of 14%)

Graduates have earned over $3.3 Million dollars since 2011

The average hourly wage is $13.11

Housing

821 People housed, 591 being Team Members

We are averaging 10 people housed per month

Our Team - 2017 Surveys

100% of Team Members feel welcome at the weekly success meetings.

92% of Team Members believe they can reach their goals through DST.

94% of Team Members believe that the exercise they receive during volunteer work helps their physical health.

Results for the 2018 surveys will be released soon.

Community

50% reduction in crime in Palo Alto between 2005-2013

75% reduction in panhandling in Palo Alto between 2005-2013

Beautifying the environment & changing lives

Not only are we empowering individuals to get back to work, we’re cleaning up our neighborhoods, creeks and downtown streets along the way. As one of our Team Members said, what we’re doing is a “win-win-win” scenario: the Team Member wins, the environment wins and the community wins – it doesn’t get much better than that.

Over 88,000 tons of debris removed from urban waterways that lead into the San Francisco Bay.

This accounted for 74% of all debris removed from Urban Waterways in San Jose between 2016-2017. Not bad for a homeless services company!

1.8 million cigarette butts collected from our city streets to be recycled

Our work in homeless encampments

Five times every week, our San Jose Team Members head out to San Jose’s encampments and clean up the mounds of garbage and abandoned household items that litter the creek beds and nature trails. On average, over 200 33-gallon bags of trash are removed per day. Additionally, through peer-to-peer outreach, our Team Members have successfully recruited over 40 encampment residents to join our Team.

In just two years, our San Jose Streets Team collected 4,000 cubic yards of trash from a single project area; 10x our original goal and the equivalent of 26 semi-truck trailers.

Cigarette butts or bust

Our San Rafael Team partnered with Saint Vincent de Paul and San Rafael Clean to collect 100,000 cigarette butts from the streets of San Rafael. The cigarettes will be terracycled into plastic pellets, which then will be made into park benches, shipping pallets and railroad ties. This effort was so successful, the San Rafael Team began their own project and has removed over 1,500,000 cigarette butts to date! Now Sunnyvale is following San Rafael’s lead in kicking butt!

Impact Dashboard

Download the current Impact Dashboard for more information on Downtown Street's Team impact accross all projects.